In the 365-day gap between ages 23 and 24, a lot has happened. I mean, a lot. There was some studying, and some term-paper-writing; A bit of travel somewhere in there; Braving snow storms, and rain storms, and stealing sunny days in pumpkin patches and farmer’s markets and on beachfronts. There were hiking trips, ferry rides, flurries of book pages read, but I think the biggest thing of all was the self-publication of my first two books.

It happened half on a whim.

I say half because I’d had this plan in my head since I was about 17. Not exactly the specifics, not what the books would be or what platform I would publish through, but I’d kept self-publication in my head since high school. I knew I wanted to be published – I’d known that I was five-years-old reading Harry Potter and realizing that someone wrote that book, someone put that book in the world. I looked at all my crayon-covered works of fiction and thought that maybe I could do that, too. And I’d heard about self-publishing through internet forums as a high school senior trying to figure out just what I was supposed to do with my life. So, the idea was there, a seed in my brain, watered sparingly and growing slowly upward.

The whim part came later, as whims do.

I don’t remember exactly when it hit. It was somewhere between despairing at missing my “I’ll publish by 21 goal!” and the realization of “screw it, it’ll be just as impressive at 23”. And I guess it was.

That’s how Ready Aim Fire was born. In between thoughts both self-deprecating and confident, a blossom finally blooming off that seed planted years ago. And it felt good to get it out there, to know that people were reading it, to see people responding to it – to know that it was helping other people the way writing it helped me.

Writing a second book just seemed natural after that. I even dug back into my old archives (read: piles of journals and MS Word files scratched in and printed out and stashed away, dating as far back as the fifth grade) and revised some stories written years ago to include in Basket Case. And then came the book launch – my first reading and signing, a happy birthday event for my brand new book, my chance to share with my friends and family just how much this journey has meant to me.

And all of that happened in a year.

I’m rounding on another birthday today, and I can’t really say what’s in store for 24 (besides more bad rhymes – I’m sorry). But 23 wasn’t so bad. I feel like more big things, exciting things, possibly-a-little-bit-scary things are on their way. And I feel like I’m ready to greet them.

To thank all of you for your support on my journey so far, I’d like to offer you free shipping on signed copies of Ready Aim Fire and Basket Case! This offer will be valid throughout the month of August. You’ll get your book (or books!) with a personalized inscription, some Lexi Vranick Books stickers, and a special bookmark hinting at my next book, Exit Ghost.